Our readers say: "Wrong way to simplify taxes"

The recommendation of the Portland Press Herald ("Simpler tax code for more revenue," July 21) to invest $240 million into IRA tax enforcement to collect $500 billion in unpaid taxes is fiscally sound, but this wouldn't require a simpler code as much as it would greater compliance.

A stronger argument for a simpler tax code rests in the newspaper's observation that most Americans can no longer prepare their own tax forms and must hire professionals. Eliminating, reducing or clarifying the myriad categories of complex tax deductions is a long-needed reform.

Unfortunately, the "Gang of Six" senators is currently advocating a far different approach to "simplifying" taxes. They are proposing to reduce or eliminate long-standing deductions that especially serve the middle class - such as mortgage interest, charitable gifts and retirement savings.

Even worse, the "Gang of Six" wants to lower the income tax rate for the highest earners by another 6 percent - adding to the previous 4.6 percent Bush tax cut for the wealthy. This major loss in revenue will significantly increase the deficit. And it will eventually result in a commensurate tax burden being added onto the middle class to replace the cut.

The "Gang" claims to offset this handout by reducing tax breaks exploited by the wealthy. Instead, their 6 percent tax cut lavishly rewards those who have been gaming the tax system all along. And the gamers will merely find new loopholes in the tax code, whereas their munificent tax cuts will become permanent.

The middle class, particularly in America, has long been the bulwark of democracy. But in the past 30 years it has suffered economically - first through the outsourcing of manufacturing jobs abroad, and recently through layoffs in the public sector that are even outnumbering private layoffs.

With respect to education, the middle class is being priced out of public universities and colleges. In politics, recent Supreme Court decisions have vastly increased the power of corporate donors and lobbyists over citizens of ordinary means.

Shifting still more tax burdens from the upper income elite onto average citizens will further erode America's remaining middle class.